Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is like a greatest hits album with a new song tucked in at the end. In this case it’s called “Lockpick”. And much like a greatest hits album it has all your favorites, but misses the continuity that each song originally was a part of.

Does that mean The Lost Legacy is a bad game? Not at all.

The Uncharted spin-off puts you in control of Chloe Frazer and she is indeed on a treasure hunt. This time for an Indian artifact in the middle of the lushest of jungles. Nadine Ross of Uncharted 4 fame whom recently lost control of mercenary company Shoreline joins in with her own set of motives. They are, of course, not the only ones looking for the Golden Tusk of Ganesh, and so their expedition into the western Ghats turn into an elegant dance of exploration, puzzle solving and shooting.

Yes, it’s very much an Uncharted game. This condensed version ups the amount and scale of the puzzles and exploration at the expense of elaborate and drawn-out shootouts. In other words, they tipped the scaled in a direction I favor, as I’ve never been a huge fan of Uncharted’s gunplay. To its defense, the shootouts that do occur feel a lot more dynamic and intense than before, which is fun. Those damn heavies though. You will also fall through the floor a lot. It’s a thing.

The star of show though is the Western Ghats. It’s not only Naughty Dog’s biggest explorable area to date, but one filled with fantastical puzzles, gorgeous scenery and secrets (ok, collectibles). With an HDR enabled tv you’ll try your best not to become utterly blinded each time the sun strikes through the trees or above a mountain top. It’s a sight to behold, but then again you can trust Naughty Dog to make things look pretty. This also means that motion capture and voice work is top of the line. Like Uncharted 4, you will travel the Ghats by jeep, you’ll winch things and you’ll claw your way up (and sometimes unintentionally down) muddy hills. It isn’t that different from what you’ve done before, but it’s an expanded means to an end, which is the puzzles and discovery. The Lost Legacy is filled with elaborate ways to open doors or gain access to otherwise inaccessible areas. Most of them are fun to figure out, and the result is almost always completely fulfilling to behold. If you’ve enjoyed those parts of Uncharted before, you will certainly have a hoot playing this.

The dynamic between Chloe and Nadine is superb, but their relationship could have gained from a little bit more exposition throughout the game. That said, their conversations and quips come with a clever sting and humor that even Nathan Drake might find hard to top at times.

The Lost Legacy doesn’t quite reach the top shelf on story alone, for that it plays it too safe, but the complete package is a pretty neat experience that will take you about 7.5 hours to complete rather than 30, and you get everything you expect from an Uncharted game in said package including a fun throwback or three. What the game doesn’t bring to the table with new features (lock-picking is just a fun as you imagine it would be), it makes up with rocking set-pieces and interesting puzzles.